Govt to advertise confiscation of chit fund companies' assets

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government would inform chit fund companies about the confiscation of their properties through advertisements in the media.

A decision to this effect was taken at a high level meeting between Justice MM Das Commission of Inquiry probing the chit fund scam and top officials of the state government here on Tuesday.

Briefing media persons after the meeting, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said the meeting discussed steps to be taken to refund the invested money of duped investors at the earliest.

“It was decided that instead of serving individual notices to the chit fund companies whose properties are to be confiscated, the state government would inform these companies through advertisements in the media while the people, who have invested their money in these companies, would apply to the concerned authorities and the additional district magistrates (ADMs) who are empowered to confiscate and auction the properties of the companies. This will help the concerned officials to disburse the money collected through auction of the properties among the investors,” Padhi said.

Presiding over the meeting, Justice Das asked the officials to expedite the process to ensure early disbursal of the refund of money among the duped investors.

Special Secretary, Finance, Vishal Deb, Additional Secretary, Home, Sushil Mahapatra, Special Secretary, IT, RN Palai, Special DG, Crime, BK Sharma and IG, Crime Branch, Arun Bothra were present in the meeting.